CNPAV Urges New Govt to End Sino-Congolese Convention and Apply Mining Code to Sicomines Project
Congo Is Not for Sale (CNPAV) is calling on Prime Minister Judith Suminwa’s new government to terminate the Sino-Congolese Convention and enforce the Mining Code on the Sicomines project.
The CNPAV highlights ongoing uncertainties in infrastructure financing and criticizes the structural imbalances sustained after the renegotiation of the Chinese contract.
The CNPAV welcomes the timely publication of Amendment 5, signed on March 14, 2024, between the Congolese government and the consortium of Chinese companies after over a year of negotiations.
However, the organization is concerned about the amendment’s clauses, which introduce uncertainties in infrastructure financing and perpetuate structural imbalances that have disadvantaged the DRC for more than 15 years.
A detailed analysis of Amendment 5 reveals that the structural imbalances previously criticized by civil society organizations and the Executive Committee of the EITI-DRC remain unresolved, according to the CNPAV.
These imbalances include the management of Sicomines outside the normal public finance channels, which fosters corruption and misappropriation of public funds, tax exemptions granted to Sicomines causing revenue loss, lack of technology and skill transfer clauses, unjustified minority shares for the Congolese side, and insufficient infrastructure funding.
In her address to the deputies, Judith Suminwa stated, “In the field of infrastructure, the DRC has launched numerous projects to stimulate economic development and improve living conditions.
The renegotiation of the SICOMINES contract allowed the Government to access significant resources for the construction of 12,000 km of roads across the national territory.”
Despite these statements, the CNPAV underscores the additional uncertainties and ambiguities introduced by Amendment 5. Infrastructure funding is now tied to the international market price of copper, a variable beyond the DRC’s control.
Additionally, revenues from cobalt, declared a strategic mineral by the government, were excluded from infrastructure financing.
The CNPAV calls on the Congolese government to terminate the Sicomines Convention and apply the Mining Code to this project. They also urge the EITI-DRC Multi-Stakeholder Group to prioritize transparency and balance in the new amendment as part of its governance objectives for the extractive sector.
